The UNIX System and Standards

[Rami Al-Lolah]

Hi,

I went through this topic in the fundamentals of the UNIX system manual, however, I could not understand it clearly.

I can say, I could catch 50% of it, however, I am really looking for any simple article that describes this issue in a clear and simple way.

I do not know if someone can help????

Thanks in advance

[harry d brown jr]

I hope this doesn't sound to negative, but what don't you understand? The word "standards" as how it's applied to unix? Or something else?

What unix system manual did you go through?

BTW, no one will probably ever know 100% of everything about unix. Therefore 50% is probably a lot more than most others!


live free or die
harry

[Wodisch]

Hi,

to add to the points already described by Harry:

- which type of standard? There are "official" standards and "de-facto" = "market" standards
- which standards? system-calls, graphics, databases, middleware, networking, protocols, hardware...

FWIW,
Wodisch

[Rami Al-Lolah]

Thanks for the response, however, I went through this topic in the Fundamentals of the UNIX training materials. They have discussed the UNIX standards (i.e. SVID, POSIX, ???etc) in regards of presenting the history of the implementations of the operating system.

Well, I am not looking for a detailed documentation for a specific standard. I would like to understand the concept in a simple and clear way.

It is truly that you cannot learn everything 100%, but at least you should understand the basis 100%.

[Rami Al-Lolah]

Thanks for the response, however, I went through this topic in the Fundamentals of the UNIX training materials. They have discussed the UNIX standards (i.e. SVID, POSIX, ???etc) in regards of presenting the history of the implementations of the operating system.

Well, I am not looking for a detailed documentation for a specific standard. I would like to understand the concept in a simple and clear way.

It is truly that you cannot learn everything 100%, but at least you should understand the basis 100%.

[Rami Al-Lolah]

Harry and Wodisch, thanks for the response. I am interesting to read about the real meaning of the word ???standards??? and how is applied to the UNIX system, as what Harry stated.

I do not want to go so deep in the details; however, I am interested to understand the concept behind the standards in a simple and clear manner.

I have gone through this topic in the Fundamentals of the UNIX system training materials. It is truly right that you cannot learn everything 100%, but you should understand the basis 100%.

[Wodisch_1]

Hi again,

of course you can always try to understand 100% of something, though that goal will not be reached often... (I do like the approach, though).

Well, then the answer (one of the answers, maybe) to your question about standards is more or less about the history of UN*X, or its origin.

AT&T's Bell Labs were the place were UNIX was invented back in 1969 and its official "birthday" is hence the 1st January, 1970, 00:00 o'clock in the morning.
That was "version 1", and the versions are about the releases of the man-pages.
At "version 7" the numbering scheme was su-divided into "System" numbers (with roman numbers), where the best known ones is "UNIX version 7 System V"(since about 1983) and within that one we have "release" numbers. The "version" part has been silently dropped, so we are speaking about "System V Rel. 3" (about 1986) and "System V Rel. 4" (since 1989). Now for the standards part of it:
The description of the "system-calls" of "System V Rel. 3" was called "SVID3" (System V Interface Definition, for System V Rel.3) and "SVID4" (for Rel. 4). All those are "de-facto" or "market" standards, as they have been designed by a single vendor.
Then there was a group of vendors (the "BISON" group, which turned into "X/Open" later), who released a description of how to use UN*X systems in a portable way. "XPG3" (X/Open Portability Guide, for Rel.3) and "XPG4" were wthat the did. Not an "official" law or standard, but at least as vendor-neutral as you could get it, then.
Then we have "POSIX" (POrtable System Interface based on uniX), which is about UN*X-like systems, and how to use them, administer them, and write applications for them...
And all those standard groups are pretty much out of exitance, today. Have you ever heard about the "Open Group", ever? Well, that's what became of "X/Open" (and the "OSF" = "Open Software Foudation", which defined, "OSF/Motif" and "DCE").
End of the history lesson :-)

Today it seems, like we all take for granted what those groups took years to accomplish...

FWIW,
Wodisch (working on UNIX and UN*X-like systems for 20 years)

[Rami Al-Lolah]

Thanks Wodish. I still can see that I am not understanding that topic, however, thank you for your time.

Actually, I am searching the Internet for any simple articles which describe this topic.

Thanks anyway ......

[Bill Hassell]

What we are saying is that there is no such thing as a UNIX standard, just like there is no such thing as a SCSI standard--there are so many to choose from. Which begs the question: Is there a single UNIX standard and the answer is NO. There are standards that apply to a specific command (look that the Standards Conformance section of the man page, assuming there that section exists), and standards that apply to system calls and libraries and standards that apply to file formats and so on.

As Woodisch explained, there are several standards and they apply ONLY in part to UNIX as a general concept. In fact, the vast majority of system administration functions have no standard at all!!! The names of drivers, the major and minor numbers for device files, the way in which software is installed, the way in which memory is allocated to processes and kernel structures, the way that swap or paging works (and many more) are completely proprietary.

So the answer to your original question is: No, there is no clear and simple way to describe UNIX standards. However, at least there are *some* standards, which is more than can be said for other operating systems that are virtually 100% proprietary.